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Global Portrayals of Engineering Ethics Education: a Systematic Literature Review

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Global Portrayals of Engineering Ethics Education: a Systematic Literature Review Paper ID #6396 Global Portrayals of Engineering Ethics Education: A Systematic Literature Review Justin L Hess, Purdue University, West Lafayette Justin L Hess is a Ph.D. student at Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education. His research focuses on the role of individual values in engineering decision making, such as the role of empathy in stakeholder perspective taking, motivating student interest in sustainability, and deconstructing dominant worldviews within engineering. He currently is a research and teaching assistant for an NSF-funded project which uses reflexive principlism as an ethical framework for engineers to reason through moral is- sues, and explores the effectiveness of using a pedagogical framework of scaffolded, integrated, reflexive analysis to deliver the material. He was the 2012-2013 Engineering Education Graduate Student Asso- ciation President, the Director of Technology and Events for Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) during 2012-2013, and will be the Education Director for ESW during 2013-2014. He is an acting assis- tant editor for Engineering Studies editor the J-PEER. Page 23.645.1 Page c American Society for Engineering Education, 2013 Global Applications of Engineering Ethics Education: A Systematic Literature Review Introduction Engineering education plays a crucial role in leading students to develop the competencies needed to succeed in a global world .1 Engineering educators now seek to help students foster a “global perspective” in order to thrive in the global environment2, yet their focus has a tendency to be on the economic incentives of so doing.3,4 Dewey stated long ago, “If ever we are to be governed by intelligence, not by things and by words, science (and engineering, I add) must have something to say about what we do, and not merely about how we may do it most easily and economically”.5 Ethics education is one arena for such discourse. The contemporary landscape Today, professional ethics has become a central subject within engineering education in the United States, due in part to an increased focus on professional responsibilities of engineers6, risks associated with rapid technological development7, and ABET8 mandated student outcome of “an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility”. The National Academy of Engineers similarly suggests students need to “possess a working framework upon which high ethical standards and a strong sense of professionalism can be developed”.9 As a core habit of mind, these students must be attentive to ethical considerations, they must realize “the impacts of engineering on people and the environment”, and they must be considerate of “unintended consequences of a technology”.10 ABET frames such a responsibility in a global context with the following stated outcome; “the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context”.8 Internationally, engineering ethics education is also gaining importance.1 However, its emergence has varied according to the identity of engineers within differing national contexts and according to cultural values, professional codes, and standards of the respective nation.11 In many countries, such as the U.S., Spain, and the Netherlands, ethics is now “a required part of the curriculum”.12 Accreditation boards are arising globally13, often playing some role in the impetus of ethics curriculum inclusion. For example, the Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education (JABEE) seeks to ensure Japanese engineering students gain an understanding of their professional “responsibility to the public”.14 Global considerations What Patil and Codner call for is the development of a “global accreditation model” to “produce better graduate outcomes and also promote mutual recognition and global mobility of engineering education”.15 However, the direct transferability of an ethical model from one context to another is always challenging, given differing values, cultures, and worldviews. Professional codes of ethics are not universal, as they are influenced by political, social, and aesthetic factors.16 Harris Jr. suggested engineers need ethical guidelines to “act ethically” in an international environment, as professional codes as written in the United States are commonly non-transferrable outside of a U.S. context.17 Weil provides some recommendations toward the development of international or even transnational codes, one recommendation being the 18 addition of conditional statements that take into account local factors. She posits this will also 23.645.2 Page lead to conceptualization of standards as “rough boundaries for practice” rather than rigid rules. GLOBAL APPLICATIONS OF ENGINEERING ETHICS EDUCATION The formulation of international codes may be contingent upon the doctrine of cultural relativism which acknowledges the subjective nature of worldviews. At the core of relativism may be discovered a universal precept; the global need for ethical standards regarding a “sense of what is expected and what is out of line”.19 No matter the national context, there likely exists an acceptable social and cultural norm within that context. Therefore, an effective international code that takes into account limitless necessary albeit relative factors through a complex system of conditional statements may in fact be possible. Research questions The development of conditional statements leading towards the development of international codes is beyond the scope of this paper, although this work may be viewed as a step in that direction. This study examines the applications of engineering ethics education worldwide, guided by the following research question, “In what ways is engineering ethics being incorporated into the engineering curriculum globally?” Secondary research questions include, “In what context are these ethics courses situated?” and “What content, assessment, pedagogy, and ethical theories (if any) are implemented by instructors?” Overview of this study This study begins with a general literature review exploring the goals of engineering ethics education and methods of incorporating ethics into engineering curriculum. The theoretical framework grounds my assumptions as I perform a systematic literature review of applications of engineering ethics education. This paper ends with results of the literature review, elaboration of three applications from different host nations, a discussion on global reflections and curriculum considerations for engineering ethics educators, and closing remarks. Admittedly, my ideologies are U.S.-centric, but I make the attempt of the qualitative researcher at approaching my research questions with an open-mind, unguided by potential bias towards U.S. models of engineering ethics education. Literature Review Embedding ethics into engineering education Harris Jr, Davis, Pritchard, and Rabins suggested engineering ethics has varying learning goals, including “to stimulate the ethical imagination of students”, to “recognize ethical issues”, “to help students analyze key ethical concepts and principles that are relevant to the particular profession or practice”, “to help students deal with ethical disagreement, ambiguity, and vagueness”, and “to encourage students to take ethical responsibility seriously”.20 Newberry breaks these goals into three broader categories, “emotional engagement, intellectual engagement, and particular knowledge”.21 Haws is more specific, as he posits engineering ethics should help students develop “enactive mastery, as they encounter moral dilemma and work through ethical deliberations” while being provided “vicarious experience, encountering the moral dilemma of others with whom they identify; and expert testimony, following those whose expertise they accept”.22 Like the varying learning goals, the means through which ethics are included into engineering education are diverse, ranging from general ethics courses in domains outside of engineering, to integration into engineering courses themselves.23,24 For the most part, when led by engineering instructors the focus has been professional codes and/or case studies.25 There are 23.645.3 Page many proponents of these methods20,26 despite “little empirical research on whether the use of GLOBAL APPLICATIONS OF ENGINEERING ETHICS EDUCATION cases is the most effective teaching method in promoting ethical understanding for engineering students”.27 Critics of these “individualistic approaches” suggest the focus is too narrow28,29 and that codes restrict attention to micro-ethics issues, when the focus should instead be on macro- ethics, or societal issues.30 Devon & De Poel believe both the “social ethics approach and individual ethics approach do not exclude each other.31 However, individual ethics without social ethics is powerless”.31 Haws goes one step further, suggesting that students should develop a meta-ethic by applying ethical principles within a social context through “the negotiation of moral values”.32 Potential barriers of effectiveness Haws is suggesting that some inclusion of ethical theory is necessary for the development of a moral framework to solve future ethical dilemmas.32 He found in an earlier study that ethical theory was rarely included in engineering ethics education.25 Unlike Haws, Abaté argues that engineering ethics should not and even cannot be taught if understood as “training engineers to be moral individuals”.26 Abaté’s suggestion is that morality is imbedded deep into one’s being,
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